Non-wedding Sate Padang

There are all kinds of satays in Indonesia, but one of my favorites (besides the regular chicken and peanut sauce) is Sate Padang, a spicy and exciting dish from the city of Padang in the province of West Sumatra.

I have gone to many weddings in my life, and in most weddings, catering will serve Sate Padang. I don't know why, but there ya go. It's a guest's favorite, I guess. And that is why I always associate sate padang to be a wedding dish.

Thankfully, though, now I don't have to wait to be invited to someone's reception to have this delicacy because I found a spot in Gunung Sahari's Golden Truly which sells really delicious sate padang. Spicy and savory, with a choice of lontong or potato chips covered in sate padang sauce, it makes for the perfect lunch meal.

I don't know how to describe this dish. The diced beef are boiled and marinated in spices which are too complicated for me to describe, and then the satay are all covered by mouth-watering gravy made of turmeric, garlic, coriander, galangal roots, curry powder, cumin, and broth made of internal organs (offal).

When I see the distinctive yellow color of the gravy, my stomach immediately growls, asking for sate padang to get in my belly.

Nasi Box; it's what's for lunch

When you are in Indonesia and your boss tells you that at 10AM there will be a meeting at so and so Ministry (and this is speaking from personal experience), you can be 95% sure that you will end up being at the meeting until noon and that lunch will be provided in the form of "nasi box."

Nasi means rice. We all know what box means. Put together, nasi box means "bento." It's basically Indonesia's version of a lunch in a box or sometimes dinner in a box.

This is the go-to type of meal for most of Indonesia's ministries and each ministry would have a favorite nasi box catering/restaurant it likes to order from. My directorate really prefers a Padang food nasi box called Wahid II, which is actually quite tasty.

There was a directorate once where I attended a meeting and the lunch box was hokka hokka bento, which is my least favorite of all the nasi boxes out there not only because I think "hokben" tastes like crap inside a foam tupperware, but it also banks on a gigantic portion of rice unbalanced by a tiny two-pieces of fried shrimp or chicken. Not really the healthiest of lunch or dinner meals.

I went to the Ministry of Defence once for a very long meeting, and that place gave all the attendees a huge box of D'Cost, a seafood chain.

Reliance on nasi box, though, can get a little overboard, in my opinion. Sometimes the catering people would just come and drop off the boxes, and we wouldn't know whose boxes they belong to so no one takes them. By the time we figure out that it's for us, the food inside is probably on the way to becoming rotten. And hence my stomach problems throughout 2011 when all I had every single day was nasi box (because I was at work 24/7... seemingly).

But getting nasi box certainly beats missing lunch because of a meeting, and nasi boxes saves me a lot of money. So there's the plus side.

The day when sacrifices are made

It's a little difficult to describe Idul Adha because I don't celebrate this Muslim holiday. I guess the background would be the story of Abraham and how he was told by God to sacrifice his first-born. In the Islamic version, the first-born is Ishmael. Well, Abraham was about to do it until a divine voice intervened, told him to stop, and sacrifice a goat in his first-born's place. The point is he was about to make the ultimate sacrifice for God.

Well, Idul Adha is a celebration of this story, but instead of first-borns, the Muslim population sacrifice cows and goats instead.

Indonesia being mostly made-up of Muslims, also follows the tradition of sacrificing and giving the meat to the poor. On idul adha, loud shrieking horror noises of terrified goats and cows can be heard throughout the entire neighborhood, but it's all for a good cause.

I've never actually seen the rituals, because I probably would faint, but my brother has when he was still in elementary school. He said it made him nauseated and he wouldn't want to witness such a thing ever again.

Funny enough, tomorrow is the 15th of October, which is both my birthday and this year's Idul Adha. I was born in the year of the goat, according to the Chinese zodiac..... I can't help but feel a little freaked out at the symbolism and coincidence of it all. Hope my neck won't get a chill tomorrow.

Sedap Malam restaurant opened nearby

One of my favorite seafood restaurants in Jakarta is Sedap Malam, which means "delicious night." That sounds a bit kinky, but then again, seafood is supposed to be sumptuous and tempting. The original restaurant is located on Batu Tulis Raya street, the area behind the Presidential palace.

I used to go there with my parents and we would order the sweet black pepper sauce crab.

Now a chain has opened near where I live, which means I don't have to go too far to have some delicious seafood. = 

Garlic shrimp

That's kangkung (Chinese spinach / morning glory) on top

Coconut and orange punch

The famous crab with sweet black pepper sauce

Bean sprouts

Ny. Suharti's fried chicken

One of my favorite Indonesian fried chicken chains is Ayam Goreng Ny. Suharti. Ayam goreng means fried chicken. Ny = Mrs. Suharti is a name. So it's Mrs. Suharti's fried chicken.

Ny. Suharti's fried chicken has been a favorite of my family since as long as I can remember. This fried chicken establishment was owned by a husband-and-wife named Sachlan (the husband) and Suharti (the wife), but unfortunately, after around 30 years of harmonious business together, another woman got in the way, dissolving not only the marriage, but also the business.

Now there are two versions of the Ny. Suharti brand. One is owned by the former husband, the logo is in the picture below. The logo is two chickens with an S in the middle. 

The husband's restaurant

The one owned by Mrs. Suharti also uses the two chickens, but it is reinforced by the addition of her photo in the logo so that people can differentiate which restaurants belong to the former husband and which to the former wife.

The taste of both restaurants' chickens are the same, though. They both use ayam kampung (free-range chicken), and the chicken is topped with the most delicious kremes (crunchy fried topping).

That lady is calling my name "Miss Lyanna, your chicken is ready!"

I have never actually tried Ny. Suharti's other dishes. That's how much I love their fried chicken, but I heard the fried fish is also good.

And let me give you an advice. The best way to eat this is the Indonesian way: by using YOUR HANDS. NO FORKS, NO SPOONS, NO KNIVES. Just use your right hand to grab the rice, shape it into a small pyramid, put a small piece of chicken, mix in a little chili paste, and shove the thing with your thumb inside your mouth.

It might look complicated and dirty at first, but the taste of food in your hands coming into your mouth feels so much more satisfying than tasting silver hitting your tongue.

crunchy deliciousness

the sweet chili paste (sambal)

Have it with rice and a little bit of veggie

I had Turkish ice cream at Gandaria City Mall

I don't know why, but I've seen a lot of Turkish ice cream lately wherever I go. Okay, not wherever I go, but in a lot of the places I visit, I would see Turkish ice cream vendors somewhere in the corner of my eye. I remember one stand of Turkish ice cream in Bangkok while I was walking around the Asiatique Riverfront's night market.

Anyway, the chance came up to try it at Gandaria City Mall, Jakarta, and I decided to get the strawberry flavor.

I didn't really enjoy the taste of the ice cream itself. Thought it was pretty bland, to be honest. It is stickier and more malleable than other ice creams. You kinda have to put it in your mouth and chew it a bit, which was difficult to do as I was walking around the mall.

Ah well, not everything is gonna be to everyone's taste. I probably won't try another Turkish ice cream until I get to Turkey to taste the real thing. Maybe it would be 100% better over there.

In New York, I tasted dog food

This isn't really a review about food. But it is just an anecdote from the recent past when I used to live in New York City. 

I went to the local Petco and looked at the different arrays of dog cookies displayed in the center of the store. Then one of the employees of the store, named Iris, came up to me and said "can I help you with anything?"

"I'm just looking for some cookies for my dog."

So she picked up one of the cookies and proceeded to shove it in her mouth and eat the entire thing. In my astonishment, I stupidly told her that she was eating dog cookies. She said "I would never give my dog anything that I wouldn't want to eat. So I taste everything that my dog eats."

And then she told me to try one. Amazingly, I did, and you know what, it tasted like a regular vanilla cookie.

A few weeks later, I went to a friend's house and she said "hey, I just bought new organic dog food for Rocco. Here, take a look."

She brought out a ziplock bag with kibbles in them, and in an automatic reflex, I took one and put it in my mouth.

I thought I was doing the normal thing, until I saw my friend's horrified face.

And her cookies tasted like bad chicken. Yuck.